Project Life Organization

So I’ve been running into a couple of minor snags in my system lately. First, you all know that I “borrowed” a corner of Kole’s room for my scrap space…

and then I “borrowed” a few of his drawers to hold all of my Project Life supplies…

making his room a perfect place to work on my Project Life Albums.

All of that would have worked wonderfully – except for…

{Minor Snag #1}

The napping baby. I can’t work on the PL albums in my scrap space while Kole is napping and of course, that is the only time I can work on the PL albums.

Because of this, as you all know, my kitchen table has been looking a tad messy lately.

{Minor Snag #2}

The messy pile of school work. There wasn’t enough room in my PL drawer to hold all of the girls’ school work I want to eventually put in their albums. AND because their work was just in a big unorganized pile, it was taking too much of my precious “baby is napping I can finally get something done time” to organize everything.

{Minor Snag #3}

My homework drawer that used to look like this…

has lately been looking like this. Too many papers and workbooks for one little kitchen drawer and it was becoming hard to keep track of things.

So as you know, I treated myself to a little St. Patrick’s Day trip to Target and Staples to pick up some organizers.

I bought this green crate to hold all of the girls school work/memorabilia that I might include in their PL albums. After adding all of their work I still had plenty of room, so I also used this for extra school stuff from my overflowing homework drawer. I created three tabs (A for Addison, E for Ellie, and S for school stuff). I divided the folders into seasons (spring 2010, fall 2011, etc.) because I usually do about a season at a time when I work on these books. This will be so easy to stay organized! Addison brought home a beautiful self portrait from pre-school today and I just slipped in into her “spring 2011” slot and it will be there waiting for me when it’s time to work on that section of her Project Life album. I’m hoping to stay caught up enough that I only have about a years worth of work in this crate at a time. Then I’ll just write new tabs for the new seasons as needed. The folders in the back are for school stuff we are always working on like Ellie’s journal and spelling pages.

Now that all of the paper has its own home, I can just keep workbooks and supplies in my homework drawer. I’m so happy to see it looking like this again!

and turned it into a place to hold a all of my PL supplies. (I just knew I bought those blinged out green letter stickers for a reason!)

It’s the perfect size for all of my journaling cards and scissors and pens. Love it!

I’m going to keep these somewhere in my kitchen (in a cupboard or the bottom of my pantry) so I have easy access to them. Working on my Project Life albums while Kole is napping will now be a much easier task!

oh, i love all the organization- and in green, too! that picture of kole napping is adorable. and yes- one day we will have to meet up at disneyland- that would be SO fun! i bet our girls would get along so well. :-)

I knew it! I knew there would be a great organization post with those items. This sounds like a great system to keep up with your PL books. I like the idea of having the papers organized and ready to put in the book. Way to beat those snags :)

Stop it with your adorableness and your organization. Brilliant! Hope this helps you stay on top of the multitude of albums you are tackling and allows you take advantage of sleeping baby time! Love it!!

I love your ideas to keep on top of it. I just got a cute green file holder at Target for 2.00 on clearance and I think the girls PL stuff is going to be perfect for it…thanks for the great idea! Now I just have to get 2008-10 caught up!

Oh how I love freshly organized papers, desktops, and drawers. I just bought two big accordion file folders last week (one for each kid) Then labeled the tabs for each year of school (PreK – Senior Year of High School) and have been putting all of the keepsake papers in there. So much easier than trying to make scrapbooks – I was 4 years behind on my oldest daughter’s scrapbooks! : ) This system is so much easier. Now I can focus on annual family albums instead.

Love the little bin! I found a similar wooden bin at the thrift store and hope it works. If not, guess I get to go shopping. :-) I will e cleaning out a huge storage area in my sonks closet this weekend and will have boxes and boxes of school work to go through. Your file system will be a huge help I think, especially since my son is in high school. Yep, lots of school papers.

I just ran across your blog and love it! I’m currently in organization mode around here and found lots of great tips on your blog. I’m a scrapbooker too and one of my biggest things I stress about is all of the school papers and memorbilia and how to keep them organized so I know where to find them when I’m working on my scrapbooks. I’m definitely going to adopt the file crate idea.

One question I have for you regarding your crate – how did you create the green tabs for each child and how did you attach them inside?

Thanks so much! I’m thrilled my ideas are helping you get organized! Such a good feeling, isn’t it!? The green tabs were so easy to make. I just cut some rectangles out of scrapbook paper I had on hand, stuck a sticker on the top of each one with the beginning letters of my kids’ names, and then attached them to their first file folder with some tape. So simple! Hope that helps!

Hello, I just found your blog and have fallen in love with your organizing style for your kids artwork and school! I have 3 boys and I have been looking for a way to organize schoolwork and art and find time to work on a scrapbook for each of them. Your project life books look amazing! Cant wait to keep finding great inspiration! Thank you!!! Erika

Welcome to Sunny Side Up where I share my obsession with organization and my love for home design and decor. My husband and I just finished building a house and I can't wait to put my spin on the place and share it all with you. I have three little ones and love everything about motherhood. Except the cooking. I've never enjoyed the cooking. :) Like the city we live in, things are generally pretty sunny around here. Thanks for stopping by!